Site Mobile Navigation

Ads Urge Fathers to ‘Take Time’ to Be a Dad

A new series of public service ads, promoting greater involvement by fathers in their children’s lives and aimed at American-Indian, Asian-American and Hispanic fathers, will be introduced today by the Advertising Council.

Created pro bono by Campbell-Ewald for the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Family Assistance, two arms of the Department of Health and Human Services, the ads are the latest iteration of a successful campaign introduced in 2008. The campaign previously featured an African-American father teaching his daughter to cheerlead, as well as Hispanic and Caucasian fathers.

Roland C. Warren, media campaign director for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, a government project to support fatherhood that will run the campaign’s Web site, said the new ads geared toward American-Indian, Asian-American and Hispanic fathers were created “to make sure the campaign represents a broader community of fathers.”

He also said the message was consistent with previous advertising: All ads created by Campbell-Ewald since 2008 have told fathers “the smallest moments can have the biggest impact on a child’s life” and urged them to “take time to be a dad today.”

The campaign follows recent research that underscores what many consider to be a crisis in fathering in the United States. According to a survey by the National Fatherhood Initiative, a nonprofit organization, nine out of 10 parents believe there is a “father absence crisis” in America. And the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse has found that children who live without their biological fathers are, on average, two to three times more likely to have educational and health problems, be victims of child abuse and engage in criminal behavior than peers who live with their married biological or adoptive parents.

Conversely, the group also has found that children with involved, loving fathers are far more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem and avoid high-risk behavior. Some 24 million children in the United States — one-third of the total — do not live with their biological father, according to the N.R.F.C. And nearly 20 million live in single-parent homes.

The new campaign — featuring television, outdoor, online and mobile advertising — includes two TV spots, in 15 and 30-second versions.

A spot featuring an American-Indian father and child depicts the father watching a football game on TV with two male friends; he leaves them to go down to the basement, where his son is plugging in an electric guitar to practice. The father sits down at a kit of drums and starts playing with his son, ignoring his friends and the football game upstairs.

Photo

The ads, created pro bono by Campbell-Ewald, are aimed at American-Indian, Asian-American and Hispanic fathers.

In a spot with an Asian-American father and daughter, the two are conducting an operation, dressed in masks and with their hair covered; the father asks the daughter for cotton balls, duct tape, a wooden spoon, a needle, thread and a scalpel. It turns out he is operating on his daughter’s teddy bear.

The voiceover in both ads — provided by the actor Tom Selleck, who also did the voiceover in previous ads promoting more active parenting by fathers — announces, as did previous ads, that “the smallest moments can have the biggest impact on a child’s life.” Ads conclude with the campaign’s tagline, “Take time to be a dad today,” and direct fathers to www.fatherhood.gov, the campaign’s Web site, or to call a toll-free number for parenting tips and other assistance.

Similar outdoor advertising depicts an Asian-American father and daughter dressed in wet suits and standing on a beach, where the father teaches his daughter how to use a surfboard. In another outdoor ad, another Asian-American father and his son sit on a bed, eating cereal together, while in a third outdoor ad, a Hispanic daughter whispers into her father’s ear. Certain outdoor ads also direct viewers to use their mobile phone to obtain the campaign’s Web site address.

Bill Ludwig, chairman and chief executive of Campbell-Ewald, which is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, said when his agency created cause-related advertising, it aimed to inform and inspire audiences to take action.

“The fatherhood campaign does that in spades. It makes it easy to take action. You don’t need to be a hero to be a great dad, just spend time with your kids,” he said.

The new ads — which the agency developed after consulting with American-Indian, Korean and Hispanic organizations — are meant to reach “uninvolved fathers regardless of where they are in life or their socio-economic background,” Mr. Ludwig said.

Priscilla Natkins, executive vice president and director of client services of the Advertising Council, said the new ads also tried to “engage dads with more of a carrot than a stick, to encourage them in a disarming way to be involved with their children.”

The Advertising Council has helped promote involvement by fathers in their children’s lives since the mid-1990s, with Campell-Ewald creating all advertising.

According to Ms. Natkins, the campaign historically has been one of the Ad Council’s “most successful in terms of donated media,” with over $600 million worth of advertising spots donated between 1996 and the second quarter of this year.